The
Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 3003, the No Sanctuary
for Criminals Act. This bill would ensure that American taxpayers are not
subsidizing States and localities that work to affirmatively thwart Federal law
enforcement efforts.

For
States or localities determined to be in violation of Federal law, H.R. 3003
would restrict their eligibility to receive certain Department of Justice or
Department of Homeland Security grants. Instead, under this bill, those grant
funds would be reallocated to States and localities that comply with Federal
law. Additionally, this bill would provide for more robust detention of
criminal aliens. The Administration is committed to strengthening enforcement
of our Nation’s immigration laws in order to improve national security and
public safety. This legislation is critical to these efforts.

If H.R. 3003 were presented to the President in its
current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.

TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION SELL: The House is expected to take up two immigration bills today, one that would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities and another that would increase penalties for people who reenter the U.S. multiple times after a deportation.

President Donald Trump threw his support behind both bills this week. On Wednesday, Trump met at the White House with victims of crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants and lauded the Republican lawmakers who crafted the legislation, including House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). The White House later issued a press release that tallied Trump's accomplishments in the enforcement area, from increased arrests to (yet unfulfilled) plans to build a border wall.

The bills should sail through the Republican-controlled House, but odds are that's as far as they will go. In recent years, House Republicans have ushered through similar bills only to see them go nowhere in the Senate, where Democrats would shoot them down. Morning Shift consulted three Senate Democratic aides who all said they expect to see the same thing happen this time. Republicans will "run into a resistance wall if they try to jam these two pieces through," one aide said. Read the "No Sanctuary for Criminals Act" here and "Kate's Law" here.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

You've been making your voices heard in the debate over SB 54, the California Values Act, and the Assembly has been listening. The California Values Act cleared another major hurdle last week when it passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee with overwhelming support. Our calling campaign has been going on for five months, and we have the momentum to pass SB 54 into law. We have to keep the pressure on.

SB 54 still has to pass the Assembly Judiciary Committee before it comes to a full vote.

If you live in the Sacramento region, call Assemblyperson Jim Cooper (Elk Grove) (916) 319-2009 and Assembly person Ken Cooley, (suburban Sacramento) (916) 319-2008. . Jim Cooper is a co sponsor of the bill. Insist that there not be further weakening amendments to the bill.

See posts below for more information.

Until that happens and the bill passes, we need to continue to make clear our demands for protection for our immigrant friends, neighbors, and family members. Our broken and severely outdated immigration system criminalizes immigrant communities that contribute greatly to the great state of California, and to our country as a whole. This harsh, punitive system allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to separate, detain, and deport hard working people—and local and state resources are devoted to helping ICE do just that.

Thursday, June 08, 2017

Sacramento area Assemblymen Cooper and Cooley are not reliable votes yet.

Your phone calls have made the difference in getting SB 54, the California Values Act, through the Senate to the Assembly. This campaign has serious momentum, and we're ready for the next step. The Assembly Public Safety Committee is holding a hearing on SB 54 this Tuesday, and our next task is making sure it passes the committee vote.

The California Values Act gives sanctuary to undocumented California residents and their families by prohibiting state or local law enforcement cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. ICE has made communities less safe, not more. When undocumented people are so scared of being detained or deported that they won't report serious crimes that our law enforcement should be dealing with, we all suffer.

The need for immigration reform predates Donald Trump's presidency, but ever since he took office our immigrant communities have been put in even greater danger. No undocumented person is immune from detention or deportation. There is no regard for their job, family, time lived in this country, or even children who are American citizens. It is our duty to take action, and California's to lead on making a home for our beloved immigrant communities when the federal government won't. That's what this campaign is about.

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

ACLU MOVES TO BLOCK SB4: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a preliminary injunction Monday to block a Texas law against so-called "sanctuary cities." The ACLU, along with the City of Cenizo and the League of United Latin American Citizens, filed suit in a federal court in San Antonio to prevent the measure from taking effect on September 1. Under SB4, state and local law enforcement officers will be empowered to ask about immigration status during routine encounters and police chiefs could face fines for a refusal to enforce immigration laws, among other provisions. Read the filing here and a memorandum in support here.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - David Huerta, President of United Service Workers West, SEIU, speaks at a meeting of San Francisco janitors and other workers supporting AB 450, a bill protecting workers during immigration raids and enforcement actions.

David Bacon,

At the end of February immigration agents descended on a handful of Japanese and Chinese restaurants in the suburbs of Jackson, Mississippi, and in nearby Meridian. Fifty-five immigrant cooks, dishwashers, servers and bussers were loaded into vans and taken to a detention center about 160 miles away in Jena, Louisiana.

Their arrests and subsequent treatment did more than provoke outrage among Jackson's immigrant rights activists. Labor advocates in California also took note of the incident, fearing that it marked the beginning of a new wave of immigrant raids and enforcement actions in workplaces. In response, California legislators have written a bill providing legal protections for workers, to keep the Mississippi experience from being duplicated in the Golden State.

Once the Mississippi restaurant workers had been arrested, they essentially fell off the radar screen for several days. Jackson lawyer Jeremy Litton, who represented three Guatemalan workers picked up in the raid, could not get the government to schedule hearing dates for them. He was unable to verify that the other detained immigrants were being held in the same center, or even who they were.

The Geo Corporation, formerly known as the Wackenhut Corporation, operates the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena. Geo's roots go back to the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which became notorious in the nineteenth and first half of the 20th century for violent assaults on unions and strikers.

Today Geo operates 16 immigrant detention centers around the country, according to its 2015 annual report. It runs privatized prisons as well, some of which have been investigated by the federal government after allegations of bad conditions and understaffing. The LaSalle facility has 1,160 beds. Litton says it is normally full, so taking in an additional 55 detainees would result in severe overcrowding.